Optical lattice clocks have the unprecedented ability to measure time in 100 quadrillionths of a second. This ability will change our understanding of the universe by allowing us to detect incredibly small differences between two synchronized optical lattice clocks. These differences will be caused by relativistic effects due to the curvature of space-time caused by gravity and this will allow us to make precise maps of space-time including all objects existing in space-time.

Professor Hidetoshi Katori of the University of Tokyo has been working on optical lattice clocks since 2001. This type of atomic clock allows the states of several thousand to millions of atoms to be measured simultaneously instead of the current method of measuring one atom millions of times and averaging the result. Current clocks can deliver an accuracy of 15 digits, while the optical lattice will be able to achieve an accuracy to 18 digits.

Back in May I praised the CDC for launching their Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Plan. Today, I’m ticked to show off a few more bits of zombie goodness brought to you by the U.S. government.

Did you know the CDC has free eCards? Go figure. Added to such card worthy topics as breastfeeding and getting a checkup, you can now nag your friends and family to put together a disaster preparedness kit. After all, you never know when the undead uprising will begin!Also available are digital versions of zombie preparedness posters. The pre-printed ones are already gone, but using the freely available PDF files any local or online print shop can make one for you.

So… You’re connected. You’re hi-tech. You have an arsenal of digital communications devices in every room of your house and an extra one in your pocket. That trusty ol’ landline telephone is just habit to keep around; More of a comfy blanket than for communications use anymore. Maybe we could trim the fat and save a couple of bucks, eh? I mean, the only reason it’s there is to give you a number to use when filling out online forms so you don’t have to give your Skype ID or cell number.

Well, AT&T is on to you! And they are going to make sure you pay more for less. It’s kinda their mantra, after all.

AT&T has added a new $2-a-month "minimum use" fee to the phone bills of landline customers who don't have long-distance calling plans. Whether you don’t have long distance, or simply didn’t make two bucks worth of long distance calls, you now owe AT&T money.

Just got word from my family up in Jersey. Power is out in their part of Rahway and they are not expecting it back on for a couple of days. The streets are also flooded as you can see in this pic my sister got out just before the power died. Her last Facebook post kinda spells out what the picture hints at:

“NJ is just not good for hurricanes! I've seen more flooding with this small Cat 1 hurricane than I've seen with a 2 in Florida!”

When I spoke with them last night they were spinning yarns about folks at the grocery store stocking up on meat and milk rather than non-perishable hurricane supplies.

The hearts and thoughts of all of us here at GUO go out to everyone affected by Irene. Being Florida residents, we’re very aware of how much of a mess even a small storm can cause. Remember to REST. Storms like these can create a lot of work and even more stress. Trying to carry on while exhausted will just lead to sloppy work, potential injury, and a short fuse. Don’t over do it.

It seems that almost everyone on Earth is going to be the star of a new T.V. and Internet show. Canadian company Urthecast is working with the Russian Space launch firm RSC Energia to launch two cameras to the International Space Station. One camera is normal resolution with normal red/blue/green and a near-infra-red channel that will have the ability to see an area of about 40 miles. Infrared is used to help see the Earth at night. The other camera is very high definition with a resolution of 4560 x 3048 pixels covering 3 miles by 2 miles. They will also be steerable so that they can dwell over points of interest on the surface. These cameras will be mounted on the Russian segments of the I.S.S. The live video feed is supposed to start in 2012 and internet users will be able to see the video for free through the Urthecast web platform or can be seen through Urthecast’s exclusive partners and customers video feeds.

In celebration of Microsoft's juggernaut of a first person shooter franchise, Halo Fest has opened its doors to the public at the PAX Prime gaming convention in Seattle. Major Nelson is there, of course; Wired has a list of the best merchandise to drop your credits on, and Game Informer has a batch of pics straight from the show floor.Did I mention the cake? Yeah, every last bit of that is nom-able! For added geekery, know that this picture was taken by Wil Wheaton. No lie.

*Update: This just in from Halo Fest: Halo 4 will begin an all new trilogy of games! Dubbed “The Reclaimer Trilogy”, here’s the first details complements of Halo Waypoint:

While not all of the hype around the launch of the new Deus Ex has been game related, you just can’t argue with a game sittin’ pretty atop a 89 Metacritic score with an average 9.2 user rating. It seems that after 10 years and a disappointing sequel THAT NEVER HAPPENED, Deus Ex finally has another game worthy of its legacy.

Being the die hard Deus Ex fanboy that I am, I’m heading on over to get this one myself, but just wanted to pass the word along on the best deal I could find.

Amazon.com is offering a great deal on the digital copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution for Windows. The standard version is $34.99 (down from $50) while the “Augmented Edition” is $41.99 (down from $60). The Augmented Edition includes downloadable copies of an art book, making of video, motion comic, animated storyboards, and the soundtrack. Both versions will also score you the Amazon Tactical bonus pack DLC which unlocks a double barrel shotgun and silenced sniper rifle.

All copies of Deus Ex Human Revolution are Steam games so you’ll just be able to plug the key into your existing Steam account.

FreeRice.com is certainly not a new site, but I haven't seen it mentioned for a while. With casual online gaming at all new heights, and millions of people still hungry, it seems as good a time as any to bring it back up.

Free Rice is a browser trivia game where you answer questions from the fields of math, English, geography, chemistry, the arts, or even foreign language learning. The goal is to progress through 60 increasingly difficult levels while gaining grains of rice for correct answers as well as a bonus for consecutive correct answers. The game is a fantastic educational tool and the ‘score attack’ nature and the inclusion of a friends list makes it fun to play against others.

The twist is that all that rice you gain is not merely a score indicator. For each grain of virtual rice you accrue, a real grain of rice is donated to World Food Programme, the world’s largest organization fighting hunger. To date, FreeRice has donated 91 billion grains of rice. Next time your bored at work, please think about giving Free Rice a shot. It’s more fun to make real rice than farm virtual rice and you just might learn something!

Organized during the festivals "Japan Expo Sud" (February 2011 in Marseille) and "Japan Expo 12th Impact" (July 2011 in Paris), A Tribute to Satoshi Kon was an exhibit where French artists created works to celebrate the life and work of this great visionary. Thanks to the magical series of tubes known as Internet, this exhibit is now open to the world.

Satoshi Kon’s work has long been a favorite among those that favor a more ‘art house’ approach to anime. Whether is was series such as Paranoia Agent or films like Millennium Actress, Kon’s work always spoke about the human mind and its relation to, and effect on ‘reality’. In Kon’s animations it would not be unusual to walk from the kitchen directly into someone’s memory. The stories were always of human nature and the art was a thought provoking blend of realism and dreams.

Satoshi Kon died of pancreatic cancer on August 24, 2010 at the age of 46.

I actually saw this story starting last night, but decided to wait until there was confirmation as it was simply unbelievable. Guess what? Confirmation is here.

The retail version of the new PC game Deus Ex: Human Revolution includes a surprise bonus: A coupon code for a free OnLive digital copy of the game, a $50 value! Well, it does unless you buy it at GameStop.

It seems that North America’s largest brick and mortar retailer doesn’t like the fact that a cloud based copy of the game is getting into its customer’s hands. You see, GameStop is preparing to launch their own digital space in the future and they’re not very happy that some of us live there now.

We then contacted GameStop public relations representative Beth Sharum. In an email reply, Sharum said she needed to further research the issue before providing a detailed response.However, she did confirm GameStop intentionally removed the OnLive coupons:

Update: Gamestop has now pulled all copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution from their shelves.

Kotaku has the following statement from the game’s publisher Square Enix:

"As part of Deus Ex: Human Revolution's boxed offering on PC, Square Enix included a third party coupon", says a statement released by the publisher. "GameStop was not made aware of this inclusion and Square Enix respects the right of GameStop to have final say over the contents of products it sells and to adjust them where they see fit in accordance with their policies."

Set in The Dark Eye role playing universe (Das Schwarze Auge, which old fogeys like myself will remember from the Realms of Arkania series or the much more recent Drakensang: The Dark Eye), Drakensang Online is a German free-to-play hack n’ slash MMO RPG that, courtesy of a little Java black magic, runs in a browser window and looks like this:

The HP TouchPad was launched in the United States on July 1, 2011. Seven weeks later, on August 18th, Hewlett-Packard announced it would discontinue all webOS devices. The price of all remaining TouchPad stock was slashed from the original $400-500 to $100-150. iSuppli.com estimates the cost of manufacturing the device to be $306 for the 16GB model and $328 for the 32GB model. The failure of the TouchPad at market and the mass liquidation of stock will result in a loss of millions for HP.

There are others, however; Folks who put their time and passion on the line; People bold enough to bank on a future that was a little less “i".

This is My HP Touchpad written by Craig James Johnston and Lonzell Watson. It is a 432 page paperback book. It is available for pre-order and currently showing a release date of December 26, 2011.

Craig… Lonzell… This writer salutes you.

Now take this damn burger back and get me one with extra onions LIKE I ASKED FOR, YOU HALF-WITTED NERF HERDERS! Sheesh!

Check out The Sims Social’s Facebook page. You can get 9 free items which will increase your house value and give you items that you are going to have to buy anyways.

Keep your Sim at the “Inspired’ level. You will earn more Simoleons when you are Inspired and other interactions may be more successful.

Be sure to play every hour, that’s how long it takes to refill your energy to full.

Try to use the bathroom, shower, or play on computer for fun at a friend’s house. That way you won’t break your own devices and have to spend energy to fix them.

Use your energy on important tasks first like writing, music, cooking, and painting. You earn the most simoleons from doing this activity.

Visit your friends everyday. You get 5 bonus energy to use with each neighbor each day. This will improve relationships and earn you bonus energy to use for yourself.

Complete the quests that appear on the left side of the screen. Bonuses are given for completing these quests that you don’t normally get through other means.

Build up the value of your house. The higher the value of the house, the more things are unlocked so get out there and spend some Simoleons on extra rooms, expensive furniture and decorations.

Friends are necessary to progress in this game, the more the better – so get out there and get some Facebook friends! You can find friends at “Add Me” lists for The Sims Social, or get your real friends or family to join up.

Ask your friends for help with items that you need. There are many items that are needed that can only be had by asking for them from a friend. To be sure to get what you need always give out things that your friends request. Sometimes you can also get a bonus for helping a friend .

Examiner.com is reporting that a “leaked” PDF file has been “discovered” following a Sony keynote at the Develop conference in Brighton, U.K. The PDF file in question, entitled Building Community with Playstation Network, is a PowerPoint presentation from SCEE’s R&D team and reveals a number of tasty tidbits about Sony’s upcoming handheld, the Playstation Vita.

Recently the European Space Agency, or ESA, has announced they are going to start testing ways to divert any asteroids that are on an orbit which might make then collide with Earth. They intend to launch two spacecraft to accomplish this. This mission will be known as “Don Quijote” – named after a bumbling knight that decides to joust against a windmill. The main spacecraft will be known as Hidalgo - a name that was used for Don Quijote. This main spacecraft which weighs 1100 pounds will smash headlong into the Asteroid 99942 Apophis at about 22,000 Mph. The other spacecraft, named “Sancho” after Quijote’s squire, will tag along to record and transmit the impact back to earth to determine it’s effectiveness.

This week EA’s The Sims Social started it’s much anticipated open Beta on Facebook and I was there with the other 5 Million active users to try the new version of a classic game. This version of the Sims does not differ significantly from the main series, but there are a few things that aren’t there. The job system comes to mind first. You don’t look through the paper or the computer for a job. To earn simoleons, the equivalent of Sim cash, you accomplish certain talks around the house like writing a blog article or composing a song. This also means that you aren’t gone from the house for several hours a day and there’s no waking up for work at varying times of day, so you don’t have to bother with the alarm clock.

Take a look back and see what GTA was like before the 3D juggernaut of Grand Theft Auto 3 would revolutionize open world gaming on the Playstation 2! Rockstar has been kind enough to update and release this little gem of gaming history for free directly.

As fun and frustrating as ever, GTA 2 put some much needed polish into Grand Theft Auto. The controls are still terrible (funny how some things never change), but there is no denying the gleeful mischief that can be wrought in a sandbox full of exploding cars.

TechCrunch is saying that, as of August 20, HP’s little tablet that couldn’t will be slashed in price down to $100 CAD. While I recently mocked this device during it’s sale on Woot, $100 is a whole lot less than $380! If you are looking for a new piece of kit and don’t mind the total lack of developer and manufacturer support, this is one to look into.

Update: Looked into it. Yep, true. Don’t bother trying to find one online, though. You’re gonna need to hoof it on down to ye olde brick n’ mortar stores for this one.

Mashable has some tips for those still hunting, but if you don’t have one now…

This deal is now in effect pretty much everywhere. Slickdeals has a obscenely long thread running. Rumor has it that overstock.com will drop the price on Monday and Best Buy is selling now. Amazon is probably a good place to keep on eye on as well. Good luck!

Now THAT’S a fire sale!

Updated 8/21 @ Noon EDT: Tampa bay area seems picked clean. CompUSA/Tiger Direct is claiming to have sent theirs back to HP. Looks like if you didn’t queue up at a Best Buy this morning your best bet is rolling the dice online on Monday. Gonna be at All Children’s Hospital with BG Monday, so you’re on your own. Good luck!

Updated 8/24: It’s not over yet! It looks like HP is getting some more stock of the TouchPad out of mothballs at the warehouse. Your best bet is to follow HP’s social media manager on Twitter and sign up for email notifications on they’re back in stock. Remember: It’s not the kill, it’s the thrill of the chase!

Updated 8/30: This just in from HP via email:

Thank you for your interest in the HP TouchPad and webOS. The overwhelming demand for this product in recent days has made it difficult to fulfill your request at the present time, and we are working to make more available as soon as possible. While we do not yet have specific details, we know it will be at least a few weeks before we have a limited quantity available again. We will keep you informed as we have more specifics that we can communicate, and we encourage you to join the conversation here for the latest information.

“Congratulations! You have been selected to take part in one of the most far-reaching shake-ups of this country's legal system since it was originally devised.”

Thus begins No Longer Subject to Judicial Review, the new browser game from Giant Bear Tracks. The Prime Minister has decided that he’s sick of hearing folks whine about ‘guilty’ people walking free and has concocted the brilliant scheme of letting the masses pass judgment directly. You have been enlisted to participate in this first wave of mob justice.

Armed with a handful of articles from the mass media, it is your task to assemble clues and sentence the killer. No Longer Subject to Judicial Review features multiple endings. It is a short game, with only a single case at the moment. Armchair detectives and fans of interactive fiction should head on over and give it a try.

Viz is finally reprinting the manga version of legendary sci-fi doomsday epic Neon Genesis Evangelion. Starting now, Viz Manga is is offering the series in convenient digital form, serialized as weekly chapters. Need better news? All 40 pages of Chapter 1 are available for free! You don’t even need to sign up for an account to check it out. Additional chapters will set you back a mere $1 each.Looking to get in on the action? It couldn’t be easier.

Stuck on a Flash-phobic iDevice? Grab the app for either the iPad or iPhone/iPod.

Hooked? Creating a Viz account lets you create notifications for when new material is released and synch your purchases and bookmarks across devices. There’s also a whole lot more free, legal manga to be had there!

Fancy some eSports? Valve is throwing down the gauntlet over at GamesCom with a one million dollar tournament for their upcoming online arena game DotA2. Head on over to DotA2.com and you can access live streams of the games, complete with commentary in 4 different languages (or no commentary at all), a live scoreboard, rankings, and the tournament schedule. This is also many people first real look at Valve’s eagerly anticipated free-to-play title.

The next release in Good Smile’s Cheerful Japan! series of fundraising figures turned out to be twins!

Twin Vocaloid duet Rin and Len Kagamine are both getting special edition Nendoroid figures this month as Good Smile continues its charity fundraising efforts to aid the earthquake ravaged areas of Northern Japan. Each figure comes with exclusive accessories such as pom-poms and a support flag not available in other versions.

Pre-orders are being taken now through August 29th. All figures in this series are being made to order and delivery is expected to be in late January 2012. Each figure costs ¥3,000 (~$39 USD) and ¥2,000 (~$26 USD) shipping. You can order direct from Good Smile’s Cheerful Japan! Global site.

Fortunately, there are many public movements attempting to stave off this growing trend. Today I want to feature once such group: MAFIAAFire. MAFIAAFire features a selection of easy to use browser utilities aimed at circumventing the growing trend of Internet censorship.

MAFIAAFire Redirector (Firefox, Chrome) was the first project released. It was created in reaction to the U.S. seizing Internet domains. This add-on redirects attempts to access seized site to its new location automatically.

MAFIAAFire Gee! No evil! (Firefox) was released to counter Google’s censorship. Released more out of principal than need, Gee! No evil! restores Google’s blacklisted words to autocomplete.

Finally, MAFIAAFire Slash Unblocker! (Firefox, Chrome) allows users submit and retrieve alternate links for video content that has been removed or is unavailable in your country.

US esports league Major League Gaming (MLG) has just announced that fan favorite online arena game League of Legends will be added to its pro circuit of games beginning with MLG Raleigh for the 2011 season. The free to play online game joins the ranks of other notable competitive games such as StarCraft 2, Halo: Reach, and Call of Duty: Black Ops.

For this inaugural bout, MLG has enlisted top North American teams Epik Gaming, Curse Gaming, Team Solo Mid, and Counter Logic Gaming to compete for cash prizes: $12,500 for the 1st Place team and $7,500 for 2nd Place.

Matches will be streamed live on MLG’s website Saturday August 27 10:00AM – 8:00PM and the finals on Sunday August 28 at 10:00AM – 1:45PM.

Those sullen little magic girls have a new piece of import only merch for you to drool over. Namco Bandai is teaming up with animation studio Shaft and scriptwriter Gen Urobuchi to deliver a dungeon crawling RPG on Sony’s soon to be abandoned handheld gaming system, the PSP. Check out the first trailer for Mahou Shojo Madoka Magica Portable:

Looking for something a little special in the world of mobile computing? Well check this baby out!

This, my friends, is prototype #6 of an unreleased MacBook Pro sporting a 3G modem and slide up antenna never before available to the public. She’s sporting a 2.4Ghz Core2 Duo, 2GB of R- Oh, who cares! It’s an unreleased Apple prototype MacBook Pro with 3G! After just one day on the auction block, this little gal is already commanding a whopping $6,400 price tag. Head on over to eBay to make a bid or just geek out over the giant pictures of what almost was circa 2007.

This week DARPA launched their new hypersonic bomber on a Minotaur 4 rocket to prove the technology needed to bomb anywhere in the world in under an hour. The test vehicle, known as the Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2 or HTV2, is launched into orbit and then glides back down through the atmosphere at Mach 20 over it’s target. How fast is Mach 20? Well, it’s about 13,000 Mph or NY to LA in 12 minutes. Wind tunnels can only simulate Mach 15, and only then for a few milliseconds, so advanced computational modeling was used to design the HTV2.

During last month’s OnLive experiments I was able to connect with a lot of members of the OnLive community. The most common questions I saw were regarding exactly what class of Internet connection you needed to use the service to its fullest. Usually I‘d just brush off most of these inquiries thinking “Well, its free. Try it yourself.”

There were two incidents that caused me to investigate this issue a little further. The first was when listening to the OnLiveFans Cast podcast where one of the hosts attempted to test if the service worked at 1.5Mbps by running BitTorrent in the background. The second was a great conversation with YouTuber keyotikdragon in the comments for the Metro demo. After doing some digging, I found… well, nothing. There was a lot of guesswork and some quotes pulled out of context from press releases, but nothing even resembling actual data to answer the most commonly asked question about OnLive: How much bandwidth do I need? Growing Up Otaku to the rescue!

123D Sculpt starts with you picking a basic shape from a library including everything from a simple cube to a car to a man. A toolbar on the left gives you the tools to push, pull, and smooth until your heart's content. Brush sizes and colors are selected at the bottom. Your sculpture is moved around in 3D space via all the standard iPad gestures; Pinch to zoom; 2-finger twist, etc.

Textures can be added to your future masterpiece via included stamps or finger painted on yourself. Can't find a stamp you like? Import one or use the camera on the iPad 2 to create a new one. Photos can even be color shifted before being applied.

My forehead was born to texture alien zombies

Once you're done, pictures of your latest creation can be shared from within the app to the usual places like Twitter, Facebook, email, or even Dropbox. There's also an option to use a transparent background for all of your Photoshopping needs.

While there is no shortage of apps that allow you you paint or doodle on your iPad, this is the one of the few that allows you to sculpt and paint a fully 3D object. Even excluding the 3D object manipulation, 123D Sculpt would be a phenomenal model painter. I'm not one to point at apps at declare "This defines the iPad experience," but... Egad, I'll be damned if 123D Sculpt doesn't define the ultimate art program for tablets.

123D Sculpt is an easy recommendation for $10. But it doesn't cost $10! For a limited time Autodesk has released their newest creation on Apple's App Store for the bargain price of free. Even after the promo, list price is a measly $1!

EVERYONE with access to an iPad should should try 123D Sculpt. Get it here.

Recently a new broad-spectrum drug has been found that cures virtually any viral infection. This discovery could rival the discovery of antibiotics and the effects on the world could be dramatic. Imagine no more common cold, influenza, ebola, herpes, papillomavirus, smallpox, hepatitis, SARS, rubella, HIV, measles, mumps, rabies and others. Not only would this work on currently existing viruses but also on new outbreaks of viruses that don’t even exist yet.

Researchers led by Dr. Todd Rider at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory have tested this cure on 15 different viruses in mice with no toxic side effects whatsoever. Currently this cure is being referred to as DRACO for Double-stranded RNA Activated Caspase Oligomerizers. Yeah, that’s a mouthful but what is basically means is that it seeks out double-stranded RNA (Shown on left, as opposed to DNA - Shown on right) only present in infected cells that viruses are using to replicate themselves and sends an order for that cell to self-terminate. This process also limits the amount of drug resistance that can be formed and leaves all uninfected cells unharmed. What effect will this new cure have? A significant amount of people die each year due to viruses, to have a cure would extend lifespan. Children may not need the many vaccinations and immunizations that are required today. Adults could see a change in their socializations without the fear of viral STD’s such as HIV, herpes, or hepatitis. Don't forget about all the productivity that would no longer be lost to the common cold and the flu. This could also possibly lower cancer rates thought to be caused by viruses such as Human Papillomavirus. This is truly a new wonder drug that will have wide reaching effects on all humankind.

GeekDad James Floyd Kelly took his first trip to the Mecca of pompous douchebags known as Apple Store. Guess what? It didn’t go very well. While the full article is certainly worth a read, it is the quote below that demands repeating:

“I’m writing this because I want companies (not just Apple) to realize that when geek dads decide to make a significant purchase, they’ve likely got the cash and done their homework. GeekDads are likely some of the best customers you’ll ever have — we tend to be vocal in our praise, loyal in our patronage, and generous with our sharing of our experiences with family, friends, and co-workers. But the flip side to that is this: When we’re not treated properly, we’re going to be vocal with our disappointment, likely to look for competitors who want our business, and we’ll tell everyone we know (via email, Facebook, face-to-face, and yes, even blogs) about it.”

Electronics retailers everywhere take notice: If you see someone in a Logitech t-shirt with bags under his eyes and a sippy cup in his pocket, you had better put your best foot forward.

You gotta go where the money is, right? Six people in China have been arrested for smuggling nylon bags stuffed with iPhone 4s and iPad 2s across the Sha Tau Kok River. Normally this sort of operation would be carried out in the dead of night with a small boat. But this is the 21st century and iDevices make big money!

These inventive money makers tied one end of a heavy fishing line to the 21st floor of Shenzhen high-rise and used a crossbow to fire the other end 1,000 feet across the river to a small house. A pulley was then used to ferry the iThings through the sky Hong Kong where a profit could be made.

SENDtoREADER is a spiffy little service that lets you save articles on the web to your Amazon Kindle eBook for reading at a later time. Sign up with their service (or use your Facebook account), install a bookmark, and you can forward any article on the Internet you don’t have time to read, or just don’t feel like reading under the unforgiving lighting of an LCD screen, with a couple clicks.

SENDtoREADER currently works with Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera, with Internet Explorer coming soon. There is even a plug-in version for Firefox that allows you to right-click on a link and send it to your Kindle without ever visiting the site (Chrome and Safari version “soon”). You can even configure it to forward articles from Google Reader! Check it out. I’d give it a try myself, but getting the Kindle out of the Mrs’ hands is tantamount to suicide!

Cheap Ass Gamer has found an amazing deal! It seems Walmart has jumped the gun on dropping the price of Nintendo’s 3DS handheld game system and, as of this morning, has marked the price down from $250 to $170. If you buy the system and register it with Nintendo before 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 11 you will be entered in the Nintendo Amasador program and receive 20 free Gameboy/GBA games. Walmart’s markdown is effective as of this morning, so it make take a bit before all store managers have updated to the new price. Don’t be afraid to ask!

Gen Urobuchi, scriptwriter for Puella Magi Madoka Magica, recently visited Good Smile’s Madoka Magica Café. The restaurant is a limited time renovation of Good Smile’s café in Matsudo and has been so successful that the limited engagement has already been extended for an extra month. Urobuchi was kind enough to post the following pictures from his visit to Twitter.

“Dubbed "Internet Essentials," Comcast's new plan will cost a family only $9.95 per month for a connection that features 1.5 Mbps download and 384 Kbps upload speeds. There's a guarantee of no price increases after-the-fact, as well as no activation fees or equipment rental fees for families signed up for the program. Enrollees will even be able to purchase a netbook computer via the Internet Essentials program for $149.99 (plus tax), and Comcast is offering free online and in-person "Internet training."” – PCMag.com

Don’t worry, Comcast isn’t launching this program out of the goodness of their hearts. They’re still the monopolistic, rights stomping, blackmailing, multi-media monster they’ve always been. This program is the result of a condition in the acquisition of NBC Universal. So when you read quotes like:

“Access to the Internet has the potential to be a great equalizer and a life-changing technology. Internet Essentials helps level the playing field for low-income families.” – Comcast Press Release

Know that it is less an altruistic pursuit and more the cost of becoming the first company to control BOTH the content generators as well as the pipeline it is delivered on.

That said, it’s nice We The People got something out of the deal. It’s the right move, even if it’s for the wrong reason.

A new technique of photography has been used to see the Space Shuttle launch in unprecedented detail. The photography technique, called “Fusion Imaging” uses 6 different cameras all mounted on the same bracket and taken simultaneously. Computer software selects the best pixel out of the six images and makes a composite photo after analyzing every pixel. The result is the image that we would see if we could handle the extreme brightness caused by a Space Shuttle launch. This technique could have dramatic repercussions in the research of new rocket motors, atmospheric re-entry vehicles, and other high temperature research thus allowing researchers to see what they otherwise would not have been able to. Full credit for this technique and images must be given to Louise Walker and J.T. Heineck. Now if we could just get some in color… (click on images to enlarge for better detail)

Namco Bandai is cooking up a deliciously crazy stew of anime goodness! Heroes Fantasia, an upcoming RPG for the PSP game system will include characters from at least ten different anime series such as Slayers, Orphen, Rune Soldier, Read or Die, Sgt. Frog , Blood+, Darker than BLACK, s-CRY-ed, and My-HiME. Using a party of characters from the different anime, player will adventure across both the real world as well as the fantasy world of Adoroasu. Andrisang has a look at the first screenshots.

The bad news? You can bet your hard earned cash that this one will never make it state side due to business nightmare of international licensing. Worth importing? Two words: SERGEANT FROG!!!

Cloud gaming service OnLive may be free, but it also has a $10 per month subscription offer that gets you access to over 70 of the 100ish titles on the service. This week, that deal just got a little sweeter. Here on out, PlayPack subscribers will also get a 30% price break on anything else OnLive offers: consoles, controller, newer games, or even pre-orders. You can even cancel anytime. With new games costing $50 and some pre-order deals coming with free games or consoles, I don’t have to explain what a difference this can make to expanding your OnLive library. Get the details from OnLive.com.